Revamp: A Tale of 4 Armies

Having ploughed through updating and tidying up most of the rank and file of my old Vampire Counts army ready for Warhammer: The Old World, it was time to turn my attention to bring a little character to the proceedings.

Several little characters in fact...

Although I've continued with my 'chuck Agrax Earthshade and Skeleton Horde at it' approach on most of these, several of these models were stripped and repainted from scratch.

Partly this was because I wanted to go in a different direction with them, but mainly it was because they had some quite chunky layers if paint on them and I thought they could do with some detail back.

Possibly the best example of this is my 4th edition Vampire Lord, who has been leading my armies for 30 years. He's had at least two coats of paint as I originally painted him in a much brighter blue, leaving him looking somewhat similar to Superman.

I think I darkened this down on the second time around with black ink (which I used to use as if it was a wash).

Looking closely at him for the first time in a good long while, I was amazed at how thick the paint was on him.

A Dettol bath sorted that out and I ended up painting him in a somewhat similar scheme, just opting for black robes rather than dark blue.

I'm much, much happier with how he has turned out as there's much more detail to him than was visible before. I'm particularly happy with his cloak. I'm not sure it comes out on the photo but I'm pleased with shading and highlighting I did (never amazingly easy with red), using Fleshtearer's Red contrast paint to 'layer down' from Mephiston Red rather than the other way around.

He's still a clunky, old-fashioned model who is a total ballache to rank up, but the nostalgia is strong with this one. I've always loved the fact that it has such a prominent ring on the raised hand, given that the Carstein Ring was such an auto-take item in pretty much every edition if the game.

Another relic of 4th edition is the Banshee, who was originally a special character from the Circle of Blood campaign pack.

Although I wasn't totally unhappy with how she looked, I stripped the paint off her as well as I wanted to change how she looked, binging in a bit more colour (she was basically monochrome before), including giving her a spooooky glow to her eyes with Hexwraith Flame.

I'm assuming Banshees are still a thing in Warhammer: The Old World. They were in the later editions of the game, although she did spend some years leading a unit of Wraiths (the Nazgul to be precise).

Krell, the Lord of Undeath is actually the only genuine Special Character I own for this army. Some other models were initially released as such or make a suitable duplicate (the Vampire Lord makes a perfectly good Vlad von Carstein), but Krell is and always has been Krell, the Lichemaster's mate.

For many years he was riding an ad-hoc chariot as my Black Coach proxy, but with the revival of my metal Chariot, his services in that department are no longer needed.

Krell wasn't stripped, he just got the Agrax treatment on his armour and some tidying up of the details.

This somewhat fabulously dressed Necromancer is a new addition to the army. He's been hanging round my bits box in bits for some time.

He has the telltale design elements of 4th edition bad guys. Big collar and shoulder pads, lots of bling, massive weapons and both arms raised so he can be cast in a flat plane (take another look at the Vampire Lord).

As a result, I was really worried that it would look terrible when I finished and it was possibly the worst case of 'the ugly phase' I've ever encountered.

However, now he's done I think he's delightfully silly and looks evil in a children's cartoon sort of way.

I still think the barding on the horse needs something to live it up, but I've not currently got anything suitable in my transfers pile.

Finally there are the Dark Knight and my unit of Black Knights, who mainly got the wash and tidy treatment.

The Dark Knight (not that one) is, like the Banshee, also originally from the Circle of Blood campaign and has served me for many years as a Wight Lord and, at times, a Vampire (the benefits of having a covered face.

The unit were my original Skeleton Horsemen who needed barding adding to become Black Knights when the 4th edition Undead army was split into Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings. The banner is still that same one drawn by my brother whilst we were both teenagers.

The barding is made from fabric (linen, I think, it was a long time ago) and drenched in Badab Black wash. The flag on Krell's banner is similar but with Baal Red.

The only new addition to the unit is the musician, something the unit has always lacked. He was cobbled together using a damaged Skeleton, some Bretonnian drums and the horse of the previous unit champion (who has been reassigned). It's a bit rough, but so's the whole unit. It's part of their charm.

I still have a couple of units to go

In related news, I picked up my copies of the Warhammer: The Old World rulebook, the Forces of Fantasy book (it contains the  'good' army lists: Empire, Bretonnia, Dwarfs, Wood & High Elves), and the Bretonnian Arcane Journal (extra units, rules and special characters).

There's no sign of the free PDF for Vampire Counts yet, but I didn't expect it yet. However, I've got plenty of reading to keep me occupied in the meantime.

Another chunk of painting that has little to no impact on my Lead Mountain but I do feel like I've very much broken the back of two of the four army challenges I've set myself.

Acquired: -13
Painted: 132
Lead Mountain: 855